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Chapter 8 - Losing the Castle (CitC)
It was. It was Mazette. Tubba hadn't seen his old schoolmate since he leapt off Clubba Cliff as a fugitive. Queenship had clearly treated her well, her orange scales were glowing, her formerly light orange lips were done up with a pink lipstick, her yellow hair was now white. She carried with her a golden club, hoisted gracefully over her right shoulder as she strode to them. Tubba closed his mouth and glanced over to Gonzales. He clearly hadn't been expected this turn of events either, judging by his open mouth. Resisting the urge to club his friend on his flaming hair, he turned back to Mazette. She outranked him now; everytime she had teased him along with Bubba in school, he always had the satisfaction of knowing he outranked her. Mazette turning out to be Queen was making his blood boil. To his relief, Clubbar came running up behind the battlers just as Mazette opened her mouth to speak. Tubba didn't think he'd be able to speak without firing insults at one of his school tormentors. Narrowing his eyes, he scanned what he could see of the Entrance Hall from outside the front door. The Entrance Hall had been a light, beige colored room with poor, peeling wallpaper, the birch wood of the walls hiding the exterior stone. But now, the Entrance Hall had changed beyond belief. What he could see was now a glaring orange wallpaper, with images of the King Mycerinus doing various deeds, fighting, conquering, and - Tubba retched - with Mazette. "My Queen," Tubba retched again when he heard Clubbar refer to Mazette like that, "these are the fighters you requested." Mazette swept her eyes over the battlers, disdain in her eyes. When it reached him, he glared back at her. While Mazette and Tubba hadn't talked much at school, and Mazette was a lot better than Bubba when it came to teasing, Tubba still disliked her. He regarded her as someone with no backbone, and one who would conform to any belief. Of course, she also happened to be the Queen of the entire Clubba Kingdom. "Doesn't look like much," Mazette remarked, her voice cool. "You said Tubba would be among them, and he would make them agree. I don't see him." Oh, I know this tactic. I know this very well. To draw attention to me. ''Tubba stood, lockjaw, as everyone turned to him. He knew they could clearly see his contorted rage, his fury, his anger. He closed his eyes. It was boiling up inside him, a desire to fight, a desire to get vengeance for the wrongs done to him at a young age. ''Much like the night you killed Bubba. The second voice warned, it's tone cautious. Tubba opened his eyes. I will not become a murderer again, much less the murder of the Queen. ''Everyone was waiting for him to respond. He opened his mouth, forcing his tone to become light and pleasant when he addressed Mazette. "Right here, your Highness." He attempted to put as much disgust as he could in the last word, while still keeping his voice pleasant. He was delighted to see confusion shroud Mazette's face. She had been so sure he would react negatively, especially after regarding his furious body posture. Recovering, Mazette opened her mouth in a smile. Tubba hadn't seen anything more disturbing. "Well, great. You will have a chance to prove yourself shortly." "Shortly?" Skeloetta questioned, floating to the front of the group. "The west border has fallen. So has the north. We expect to be getting an attack on Gusty Gulch any minute." Clubbar pushed his way through the battlers so he could look Mazette in the eye, just inside the Entrance Hall. "Are you kidding me?!" He roared, looking quite imposing. "We're going to be under attack any minute?! And not a warning whatsoever!?" Tubba was quite content with letting Clubbar grill Mazette, for he felt the same way. Judging by the looks of indignant betrayal on the other battlers' faces, they felt the same. The look Mazette gave him silenced the old green Clubba. "Clubbar, you're relieved of your duties." "What?" Tubba snarled, taking a pace forward, brandishing his club as the elderly Clubba recoiled in shock. It was one thing that she was willing to drag his friends into a suicide mission, but quite another that she would relieve Clubbar, the most trusted person in the whole of the Clubba Kingdom, who had served the Kingdom loyally for fifty years, of his position. Before he could go much farther than the threshold of the Entrance Hall, he felt his club being held back. It was Parin. "Don't get involved." It was common knowledge among the battlers that Tubba had a short fuse, and telling him to not get involved fired him up more. "I'm not going to stand around waiting as she''," Tubba turned and pointed the gray metal head of the club at Mazette, "sends us into a suicide mission!" He desperately tried to push his way to get at Mazette, but he felt himself being restrained, not by two limbs, but by six. Glancing back, he saw Parin, Lukki and Gonzales holding him back. Fighting desperately to free himself, he found he could not move an inch. Mazette smiled again. In front of her, Clubbar had fallen into a squat, his head resting on his club, looking aimlessly at the floor. ''What must it be like, losing a job you've had for fifty years? ''Tubba thought, pity rushing through him at the old Clubba's predicament. Xavier, who had remarkably stayed silent the whole discussion, piped up: "What happens if we don't want to fight? We can just leave." Tubba heard Shazam's voice from the back. "You might want to rethink that, Xavier." The unmistakeable sounds of Clubba feet were pounding the soil behind them. Twisting away from Parin, Lukki and Gonzales, he saw over their heads that countless Clubbas had assembled behind them. If they tried to fight their way out, it would not end well. "Well, we can easily go through the Castle and out." Before Xavier even finished his retort to the appearance of so many Clubbas, more Clubbas poured out of the various doors on all sides of the Entrance Hall. Soon, Mazette was flanked by many, burly, large Clubbas. Skeloetta slapped Xavier in the face. "Stop talking!" The battlers collapsed into a tight circle at the threshold of the entryway. The Clubbas outside were slowly approaching them, and the Clubbas inside assembled in a wall. "Well, it seems the only option you have is fight. Fight for us, or fight your way out." Mazette said, her voice dripping with the air of someone who knew they had their enemy cornered. In that instant, Tubba knew why he had been summoned to the Clubba Kingdom. ''She wants to keep the throne! She wanted to get rid of both Chubba and I! Why that little... '' "Well, what's your decision?" Mazette crowed, Clubbar still squatting at her feet. Tubba wondered if Clubbar even knew what was going on. He exchanged glances with the battlers around him. All the eyes reflected calculated defiance, as did their postures, from Gonzales' open bracing of his club to Xavier's maniacal grin. No one wanted to bend to Mazette. But as the Clubbas on either side closed in, it appeared that that was the only option.